Calle de Leganitos

Ópera·Palacio

The street takes its name from the Leganitos stream, whose name comes from the Arabic al-yinnat or algannet (“the orchards”). Ángel Fernández de los Ríos was the first to set out this Arabic etymology, later taken up by Répide and by the Centre for the Study of Islamic Madrid. An alternative, more popular but less grounded, derives it from the Romance “légamo” (mud), linked to the clayey ravine the stream ran through; the dispute is still open in the literature.

Before the street there was water. Leganitos runs down from Santo Domingo to plaza de España following the trace of a vanished stream that watered the orchards of the Priory of San Martín back in Islamic times. The name comes from that farmland. Where there is now paving there was a deep ravine that rain made impassable. A popular verse put it mockingly: “They say they’ll make a street / out of the Leganitos ravine”. The stream was buried and its galleries still run underground. The most curious building had a child’s voice. In 1590 Philip II founded here the Royal College of Santa Bárbara for boy musicians, to train trebles for the Royal Chapel, and the people nicknamed it “Casa de los Capones” (House of the Castrati). Under Ferdinand VI it was directed by the legendary Farinelli. Nearby, in 1757, Domenico Scarlatti died.

Its names

  • Prado / Huertas de LeganitosHasta 17th century
  • Calle de Leganitos (con tramo Calle del Pardo)Siglo 17th – 1835
  • Calle de Leganitos (tramo unificado)1835 – 1869
  • Propuesta: Calle de Santander1869 (no prosperó)
  • Calle de Leganitos (tramo actual)c. 1912 – actualidad
Sources (10)

Crossings